Opponents: Malory Eagles Competition: National League Div 1 Date: Saturday 10th April 2010 Venue: Ernest Bevin College Result: L 3-0 (15-25, 20-25, 17-25)
Headline: Malory complete title win with humbling of Docklands
Author: Andy Hopper
London Docklands Volleyball completed their National League season at the weekend against old rivals Malory Eagles. Malory sealed their 20th league title just before Easter and this Saturday's match had no bearing on the final league positions of either side. But with Docklands not having any success against Malory since the 2007 cup final, Ian Legrand's men set about trying to spoil Malory's preparations for this season's cup final in a couple of weeks time.
Docklands started brightly with a kill by captain Alexis Blair but that would prove to be the last time his side enjoyed the lead in the opening set as Mark Richardson started to show the benefit of training with the Great Britain Development squad. Two kills by Richardson and three Docklands' errors saw the home side into a four-point lead. Although Docklands managed to stabilise the gap, two aces in a row by Ashley Trodden, starting in front of veteran Richard Dobell who was potentially playing in his last ever league match, increased Malory's lead to 14-8. The set then ran away from Docklands as Malory steamrollered their way to a 25-15 win.
Docklands again started the set in confident style with Wayne Davies finally finding his range to strike twice in row to take Docklands 7-5 ahead. However, the home side struck back with kills by Russell Watson who was hitting just the right note for Malory. Blair and Mohammed Sliti hit back to reduce Malory's lead at 12-10 but with Dobell now on court he went back to fellow England and GB legend Alex Bialokoz to re-establish his side's three point lead. Malory continued to dictate play and despite some valiant defence from Docklands' libero Matteo Cottignoli, the league champions took the set 25-20.
Richardson got Malory off to a flyer at the start of set three but a controlled run of serves by Daniele Di Bella put Malory's passing unit under sustained pressure for the first time in the match, helping Docklands take a 5-3 lead. They still led 9-7 after good work at the net by Matt Butterworth, but that was the last of Docklands' resistance. Malory fired off seven of the next eight points to turn the set around and lead 14-10. Blair struck back with a kill and then a block on Luciano Pinter but the Docklands fight back was short lived as a mixture of Docklands' errors and strong Malory blocking took the set away from the visitors. In the end Malory finished the season with a 25-17 third set win.
Legrand was philosophical afterwards, commenting, "After we struggled last season, if you'd offered me a third placed finish this time around I would have taken it immediately. We've definitely reached our goals this season, the only disappointing result was our loss in the quarter final of the cup. Otherwise we've taken a big step forward and with most of the guys still around for next season I think we have a good foundation to build from as the league starts its new structure."
The match
marked the last Docklands' cap for Boris Halatchev. After
128 appearances the Bulgarian will return home in July after seven seasons
with Docklands. He will be sorely missed but the club wished him well
and presented him with his own Black Knight as a memento of his time with
the club.
Black Knight: Matteo Cottignoli
Docklands: Davies 4 kills (25 attempts), Halatchev 1 (7), Butterworth 5 (10), Sliti 6 (23), Blair 8 (21), Di Bella 1 (7), Cottignoli (Libero). Subs not used: Vincett, Blake.
Malory:
Richardson 17 (31), Westphal 0 (5), Brown 5 (7), Pinter 4 (18), Trodden
0 (0), Dobell 1 (2), Setsoafia 4 (8), Bialokoz 6 (9), Watson 2 (7), Fee
(Libero).